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labor union wants officials to crackdown on a “land mafia” that allegedly illegally appropriated and cleared 16,000 hectares of land from sugarcane and oil palm plantations in North Sumatra.

Josem Ginting, the chairman of the employee union of state-owned plantation company PT Perkebunan Negara Nusantara II (PTPN II), said he was disappointed that the confiscations were given a blind eye by local officials in North Sumatra, the National Land Agency (BPN) and the State-Owned Enterprises Ministry.

“The illegal land occupation has been so intensive in the past 13 months that more than 16,000 hectares of sugarcane and oil palm trees have been already slashed down and a vast area has fallen into the hands of land mafia,” Josem told reporters at a press conference here on Tuesday.

He said that thousands of workers faced layoffs since the company closed its sugar factory in Sei Semayang in April after the land mafia slashed thousands of hectares of sugarcane plants and daily CPO production decreased to only 4,000 tons in the past six months.

Hidayatullah Pasaribu, a unit manager at the plantation, said the illegal occupation was organized by the so-called mafia, which deployed thousands of people equipped with work lamps and chainsaws to cut down sugarcane plants and oil palm trees at night.

“We have frequently reported such cases to the local authorities, but so far no actions have been taken to end the illegal land occupation,” Hidayatullah said, declining to say who was behind the land mafia.

The illegal use of state plantations has been a common practice since president Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid launched land reform in 2000, following increased demand fueled by the rapid growth of Medan, the provincial capital, in the past decade.

Almost two-thirds of Medan is surrounded by the plantations of state enterprises cultivating tobacco, sugarcane and oil palm trees.

Critics have said that since the end of the New Order in 1998, state plantations have become a cash cow for local officials and local mass organizations, which arrange for the rampant theft of fresh oil palm fruits that are then sold to the state-owned CPO factories.

Josem was critical of PTPN II, which was formed from the merger of state-owned plantation companies PNP II and PNP IX several years ago.

The firm, which is headquartered in Tanjungmorawa, allegedly received the land titles for only 96,000 of 112,000 hectares that the government approved for the use of state-owned plantations for the current 45-year second-license period, he said.

“The 16,000 hectares of land illegally occupied by the mafia is part of the 96,000 hectares that was certified by the BPN,” Josem said.

Third parties, including local farmers, were given no rights to 5,800 hectares whose utility documents were under process of extension for a second 45-year license period, Josem added.

He said the state-owned plantation company and its workers had high hopes for recently appointed BPN chief Hendarman Supandji to settle the illegal land occupation and uphold the company’s authentic plantation site.